Jacob's Fairy Tales

Title: Jack and the Beanstalk

Author: Joseph Jacobs

Genre: Traditional Literature

Summary: Jack and his mother were very poor. All that they had that was worth any money was their cow Milky-White and its milk. One day the cow didn’t produce any milk and they decided that Jack should take it into the city and sell it. On his way to the city, he runs into this funny looking man an trades him five beans for Milky-White. When he returns, his mother is furious and throws the beans out the window. The next morning, Jack wakes up to find an enormous beanstalk outside his window. He climbs in it, and meets a giant woman. She warns him to run away, but before he does, he gets a good meal. In walks her husband, and after he eats his large breakfast, he takes a nap. Before Jack leaves, he steals one of the bags of gold that the giant had. A period of time later, Jack tries his luck again and climbs up the bean stalk. Again the woman warns him of her husband, and again Jack waits until the giant is asleep before he steals the goose that lays the golden eggs. The third time that he runs up the bean stalk, he steals the harp, but it cries out for its master as its being stole. Jack hurries down the beanstalk, with the giant close behind. Seeing the giant approaching, he chops down the beanstalk, killing the giant.

Reaction: I thought this was a clever little tale, one that pretty much all of us know. It was entertaining, and I loved the chant the giant says every time he smells a little boy.

Recommendation: I’d recommend this tale to pretty much anyone who’s eager to read these stories.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: The only problem that I had with this tale was that it taught children that stealing was ok, and that there wasn’t anything wrong with it because Jack and his mother was poor. That’s not really a message that I would want my children to learn.

Title: Master of All Masters

Author: Joseph Jacob

Genre: Traditional Literature

Summary: This is a tale about a little girl who gets herself hired as a servant. When an old man hires her, he takes her back to his home, where he informs her of all the different names. Instead of normal names that we would call a bed, or cat, he creates new words that she learns. One night the cat runs away and she must wake him up and let him know of what has happened.

Reaction: I thought the tale was kind of pointless. I wasn’t impressed and didn’t see a point to it.

Recommendation: I’d recommend this tale to younger children, but probably not ones over the age of 7 or 8.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: I just didn’t see a point in this tale, and honestly, I was quite bored reading it.

Title: The Cauld Lad of Hilton

Author: Joseph Jacob

Genre: Traditional Literature

Summary: This is a story about a Brownie (half man, half goblin) who messes up the kitchen of the Hilton Hall. If the servants leave it a little treat, than he cleans up their messes, but if not, he destroys the place and makes it look awful. One day the servants stay up late, and wonder what they could possibly do to make the Brownie go away! The nearest hen wife tells them that if they pay the Brownie, he will go away. And that’s exactly what they do.

Reaction: I thought this was a cute story and definitely one that the children would like to hear or read. I thought that the story line was interesting and I was entertained by it. I couldn’t figure out what a Brownie was for the longest time, and that bothered me a bit.

Recommendation: I’d recommend this book to children of a younger age. I don’t think that the older children would enjoy this tale as much.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: The only problem that I had was that I didn’t know what a Brownie was, and so that’s what I concentrated on for the first part of my reading.

Title: The Magpie’s Nest

Author: Joseph Jacob

Genre: Tradition Literature

Summary : This is a story about how all the bird were questioning how to make nests. They all huddled around Magpie’s nest and as she instructed them step by step, they would take that one piece of information, and leave. It wasn’t long before there was only one turtle dove left, but Magpie didn’t know this. She had her head down, concentrating on her nest. The turtle dove kept telling her to take two sticks, and finally she glanced up, aggravated. She flies off and vows to never help another bird learn how to properly make a nest.

Reaction: I thought it was a cute story, and I liked how (at least to me) the message of patience was sent across to the readers. They all waited until they found out the information that they needed or wanted, and then they left. But it was the last turtle dove that learned it all.

Recommendation: I don’t know that I would recommend this story to anyone. I didn’t really see a story line along the book, and I was slightly bored.

Potential Problems/Conflicts: I didn’t like how the story started off with “and monkeys chewed tobacco, and hens took snuff to make them tough”. I didn’t see how that related to the story and I don’t think that telling children to chew tobacco is a smart idea.